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Tinker artist accepted to Oklahoma City festival

  • Published
  • By Howdy Stout
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., --  The woman lingers near one of the paintings, taking in the scene portrayed with oil on canvas. "It's beautiful," she says to the artist as they talk about his work. The artist smiles his thanks in return as she moves on.

"I want to draw people in to the picture," the artist says. "Draw them in and start a conversation." And that is what Jerron Johnston, artist and aircraft electrician with the 564th Maintenance Squadron, does. This year Mr. Johnston was selected as an exhibiting artist with the Festival of Arts in Oklahoma City. Selected by peer review to show his work alongside artists from around the country, it is an acknowledgment of the skill of this self-taught artist.

"This is my third time applying but the first time to get in," Mr. Johnston said. "The first two times I was an alternate. It's pretty tough to get in."

Art, of course, has long been a favorite subject of Mr. Johnston. In high school, he studied graphics and commercial art, learning methods of silk-screening and advertisement design. But after graduation he turned down several chances to further his studies at college, instead volunteering for the US Army.

There, Mr. Johnston set aside sketching for schematics, working as an aircraft armaments mechanic and electrician for attack helicopters. There wasn't much time for art, he admitted. But five-and-a-half years later, he returned to art.

"I picked up art again and that's when I started oil painting," he said.

Without formal training, Mr. Johnston became a voracious art student, researching and reading anything and everything related to oil painting. "Anything I could get my hands on to see how other artists approached a subject," he said.

His favorite artists became his teachers, John Singer Sargent, Rembrandt and Norman Rockwell.

"An amazing storyteller with art," he says. "You can get lost in his pictures." Mr. Johnston's own life became the subject of his paintings.

"That's a picture of my mom," he says, explaining one of the portraits. "She was hanging laundry. I took a snapshot, took it back to my studio and put it on canvas."

In another, a sleeping child is revealed as his now-grown sister. But for all the work, it remained private.

"When I married my wife she urged me to get out in the public and share it with the rest of the world," he said.

At first, Mr. Johnston said, it was difficult sharing and showing his art to strangers. But the positive response and encouragement he received from artists and collectors was enough to keep him going.

"The amazing thing is when other artists look at my stuff and say, 'Wow, he's good,'" he said.

"I'm pretty proud of him," says his wife, Crystal Johnston.

But Mr. Johnston doesn't credit his own studies for his success.

"It's a gift from God that I have this ability," he says.

His own father had the gift, he added, "but he didn't have a lot of time to do it. He had eight kids."Time is sometimes tight for him as well, with overtime work on KC-135s in addition to preparing for his first-time exhibit at the arts festival last week. Ideally, Mr. Johnston says, he likes to take a break between paintings. But that isn't always possible, especially with a growing amount of commissioned work for local collectors. As a local artist, he is in growing demand.

Mr. Johnston says he learns with each painting. Although it is easier to share his work with the public, he admits to mixed feelings about selling his work. Eventually, he would like to paint full-time. And no wonder.

"It's part of my soul," he says. "That's why I do it."